The International 2016 Prize Pool Hits Yet Another Milestone

The qualifiers for The International 2016 are over, and it seems like Valve is moving onto the next step. The developers are making final adjustments to the patch and Valve is focusing on the prize pool for the main event, which, by the way, may just break last year’s record of $18 million.

With the qualifiers concluding for the DOTA 2 International 2016, we now know which teams will be battling it out for the top prize. The outrageously high crowd funded prize pools are one of the main attractions of DOTA 2 tournaments. While in The International 2014, the pool reached a massive $10.9 million, in 2015 it climbed up to $18.4 million.

The community contribution surged upwards drastically with the release of Immortals II treasure pack last week. Day 45 marked The International 2016’s total winnings reaching $15 million since launch. In comparison to last year, this milestone was reached on day 62. At this rate, this year’s prize could yet again beat the record for highest winnings in the realm of esports. However, it is not yet clearly evident that this may happen due to the early release of the Collector’s Cache.

Valve put forward the initial prize pool of $1.5 million for the International 2016. A Battle Pass (an extension of the Compendium) is released which has all kinds of things ranging from the tournament info to treasure chests and quests. While the Battle Pass comes for $9.99, every time someone buys it, 25% of the money goes directly to the prize pool.

At this time of the year the hype for the yearly showdown is building up. DOTA 2 gets a lot of media attention from all over the world. Therefore, crowdfunding skyrockets as more players sign up for the game and purchase the Battle Pass. The increased attention is likely to get more money into the system.

Hence with the conclusion of the qualifiers, the teams for the group stage of the tournament are final. The teams that powered their way through the qualifiers are,